MTA gets 9% aid hike in New York budget

Mar. 27, 2013

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The cash-strapped Metropolitan Transportation Authority will get a big boost in state aid under the budget lawmakers are set to approve, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday.

The MTA will get $358 million more than it did last year — a 9 percent increase that raises the agency’s budget to $4.2 billion.

“We have many competing needs, and we will study the most effective ways to invest Governor Cuomo’s additional appropriation,” MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said in an email. “This is good news for riders, and it gives the MTA options.”

In addition to more money for the MTA, the state’s spending plan includes some $454 million for public transit systems across the state.

“This funding will help protect toll payers, straphangers, and all New Yorkers that depend on public transportation, while at the same time supporting job-creating projects and new investments in communities,” Cuomo said in a statement.

Veronica Vanterpool, executive director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, said in an email that “while the state budget ensures transit throughout the state is better funded, it sanctions a troubling precedent: the diversion of $20 million in dedicated transit monies to pay state obligations. The dedicated funds lockbox clause negotiated last year is rendered useless as a result.”

A total of $21 million in new funds has also been set aside for local public transportation projects. Westchester County will receive $3.3 million, Rockland $799,293 and Putnam $7,395 from the pool of money, according to state officials.